Guest editorial: Politicizing violence is probably what's needed

What's that you say? Another staggering incident of gun violence? This time resulting in 20 dead school children, ages 5 to 10 years old?

It's beyond sad. Words do not suffice.

Advertisement

So don't talk about it! Don't exploit it!

Don't crassly turn it into a opportunity to talk about gun control, about what we can do to avoid massacres enabled by easy gun access by people who shouldn't have them.

It's too soon! Don't politicize it! Think of the families. Do you really think they will appreciate their dead children being turned into poster children?

Actually, we think they will, sooner or later -- especially if other families might be spared from such nightmares. Politicizing such tragedies is absolutely what we must do if we ever mean to staunch the flow of innocent blood.

Most reasonable people already believe that it's long past time to at least talk about how to make it harder for people who shouldn't have guns to get them. It's the politicians, however, who refuse to risk their necks to make something happen, so it is by definition a political issue.

President Obama gave a heartfelt speech Friday, complete with the wiping of tears, in which he said: "We're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of politics."

A nice thought, except for one thing: This issue doesn't transcend politics; it's all about politics.

The fact that we cannot even talk about the issue -- it's always too soon, until it's too late -- speaks to the political stranglehold special gun interests have on our national policy makers.

There have been many horrible instances of gun violence this year, both national and local. Incidents like this happen daily in America.

So we're having some trouble remembering which one prompted us to wonder whether the gun control war had been conclusively lost; that the guns-for-all crowd had won, and frequent blood-letting -- sometimes of children -- is simply the price we now pay for ego reinforcement and the illusion of peacemaking safety.

Was it Rep. Gabby Giffords? Was it the Aurora movie theater? Was it the mall in Oregon? Maybe it was that Kansas City NFL player?

We suppose it doesn't matter. None of those incidents resulted in any dialogue or solutions, because it was always too soon. And now it's too late for those Connecticut children. And very soon it will be too late for someone else, people we will have never met but will mourn as though we did.

At this point, our natural inclination to empathy for the victims is starting to feel phony and cheap. We as a nation can only let so many clear-cut indications for the need for gun control slip away before we, as a nation, start to share in the blame.

The Chambersburg Public Opinion is a sister publication of The Saratogian under Digital First Media.